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Planting Villages

How Gardens Make Good Neighbors

Wednesday February 3rd at 1:00 pm
Rainer Room

Why garden?  Plants provide food, comfort and amusement, but their cultivation also shapes the communities in which we live. Where we plant may be more important even than what we grow. In this respect, not all gardens are equal.  Some are pro-village, some are anti-village. The best are those that provide an opportunity for shared enjoyment. Whether you want to find out about the people next door or in the next town, plants are where conversations start, where strangers meet and become friends.  Join Roger Swain, as he crisscrosses the nation peering into front yards, back alleys, farmers' markets and flower festivals, celebrating the gardens and practices that unite us all.

Speaker

Roger Swain

2010 Show Judge - Author, gardener, & former host of 'The Victory Garden'

Roger Swain, "the man with the red suspenders," is recognized by millions as host of 'The Victory Garden,' television's longest-running gardening show. For fifteen years Roger planted, pruned, harvested and chatted with PBS viewers across the country.  More recently, he co-hosted 'People, Places and Plants' on HGTV, a show which celebrates New England gardens and gardeners, and features Roger's commentary, "Food for Thought." Biologist, gardener, writer and storyteller, Roger Swain was born and raised outside Boston Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard College, and went on to earn a Ph.D., studying the behavior in ants in tropical rain forests, before becoming Science Editor of Horticulture magazine. Since 1978 readers have been enjoying Roger's essays and articles in that magazine, as well as his five books: Earthly Pleasures, Field Days, The Practical Gardener, Saving Graces, and Groundwork. When he is not editing, writing, filming, or meeting with gardeners across the country, Roger can be found at work in the orchard and gardens of his New Hampshire farm.  Roger Swain received the American Horticultural Society Award for Writing in 1992, and in 1996 he was awarded the Massachusetts Horticultural Society Gold Medal for his "power to inspire others."

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